photo: Masyn Winn (Brian Walton/The Cardinal Nation)
The St. Louis Cardinals have three 2024 Gold Glove Award finalists. We highlight four memorable Cardinals post-season games that occurred during this week in team history.
Cards with Three Gold Glove finalists
This time of the year, MLB prepares for its annual awards season which begins in November after the postseason concludes. Many honors are given out, including the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards for the best defensive player at each position in each league.
The Gold Glove Award winner announcement is preceded by an announcement of three finalists who are the top three vote-getters for this coveted award.
The Gold Glove finalists were announced this past week, and three Cardinals were named. They are SS Masyn Winn, 3B Nolan Arenado and utility player Brendan Donovan. Of the three, only rookie Winn has not won the award previously.
Prior to 2023, Arenado had been the recipient of the Gold Glove in 10 consecutive seasons. In fact, Arenado is the only infielder to win the award in each of his first 10 MLB seasons. Back among the finalists in 2024, Arenado is vying for his 11th career Gold Glove.
Donovan received the utility player Gold Glove in 2022. It was the first year that utility player became a category for the award. Donovan, who played in only 95 games in 2023 due to an injury, was not a finalist then.
He returns to the top three in 2024, competing against Kiké Hernandez of the Dodgers and Jared Triolo of the Pirates.
Winn, 22, who just completed his first full season in the big leagues, appears as a finalist for the first time.
Winn led NL shortstops in Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) and is vying for the award along with Dansby Swanson of the Cubs and Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies. Swanson won in 2022 and 2023.
Votes were cast by all 30 managers and up to six coaches from each team. The manager and coaches vote comprises 75% of the total score. The remaining 25% comes from the stat-driven SABR Defensive Index.
The winners of the Gold Glove Award will be announced live on ESPN at 7:30 pm CT on November 3, 2024.
Trade and Acquisition Rumors
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Transactions
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Injury Report
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Looking Ahead
The postseason continues without the participation of the Cardinals. The World Series entrants are the Yankees for the American League and the Dodgers for the National League. The first game of the World Series begins on Thursday, October 25.
The postseason will continue through October and end with a potential World Series Game 7 on Saturday, November 2.
After the end of the World Series, the offseason officially begins. As of 9 am on the day after the end of the World Series, all eligible free agents will officially become free agents. During a period of five days beginning with the day after the end of the World Series, all free agents may negotiate exclusively with their parent club.
Also, during that five-day window, teams must decide on whether to pick up or decline any player option. For the Cardinals, those players are pitchers Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Keynan Middleton.
During the five-day window is when teams must make any qualifying offers to departing free agents. The QO for a one-year contract this offseason is set at $21.05 million. The Cardinals’ eligible free agents are Paul Goldschmidt, Matt Carpenter and Andrew Kittredge. Lynn, Gibson, and Middleton will become free agents if the team declines their option.
It is not expected that the Cardinals will make the QO to any of their impending free agents.
Blast from the Past
The postseason is upon us and though the Cardinals are not participating, there have been many Cardinals postseasons in the history of the franchise.
This week’s Blast from the Past is a recall of some memorable Cardinals postseason events that occurred during the period October 14 through October 20.
The following is a list of notable postseason happenings beginning with the date and a description of the memorable event that occurred.
October 14, 1985 – The Cardinals played the Dodgers in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Cardinals would go on to take the Series 4-2 in six games.
Game 5 was memorable for the walk off home run by Ozzie Smith that led St. Louis broadcaster Jack Buck to utter his famous line, “Go crazy folks! Go crazy!”
This home run was Smith’s first home run from the left side all season. The Cardinals won the game 3-2, which was followed two days later by a 7-5 victory in Los Angeles to give the Cardinals the National League Pennant.
October 15, 1964 – On this day, the Cardinals won Game 7 over the New York Yankees to earn their seventh World Series Championship.
A notable thing about this World Series win was that the Cardinals became the first team to come back from a losing record after the All-Star break and capture a World Series title.
Another point of note was that it featured brothers, one on each side of the contest, who each hit a home run in their last at bat of the Series. The brothers were Ken Boyer of the Cardinals and Clete Boyer of the Yankees.
October 17, 2005 – The notable postseason event that occurred on this day is well known to most if not all current Cardinals fans.
The Cardinals were playing the Houston Astros in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Astros were leading three games to one coming in.
At Minute Maid Park, the Astros were ahead 4-2 as the top of the ninth began. The crowd was anticipating a celebration on the horizon of the Astros taking the National League pennant.
With the Astros one strike away from their goal, David Eckstein singled off Houston closer Brad Lidge. Jim Edmonds followed with a walk. With two outs and two men on base, Albert Pujols came to bat and hit a massive three-run home run off Lidge that bounced off the Minute Maid Park roof and landed on the railroad tracks in left field. The Astros crowd was silenced as the Cardinals went on to take the game 5-4.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, the Astros won Game 6 and took the pennant anyway but had to play one more game to accomplish it.
October 19, 2006 – This was a day of three memorable events, all in the same postseason contest. The Cardinals were playing the Mets in Game 7 of the NLCS.
The score was tied 1-1 entering the sixth inning. With one runner on and one out, Scott Rolen hit a long fly ball to left field that looked sure to go over the fence and give the Cardinals the lead. The Mets left fielder, Endy Chavez, miraculously reached over the fence and snagged the ball in a snow cone catch to pull it back and then throw out Jim Edmonds in a double play.
In the top of the ninth, with the score still tied 1-1, Yadier Molina hit another long fly ball to left field with one runner on. This ball was too high for Chavez to grab, and it put the Cardinals ahead 3-1.
With the National League pennant within their grasp, the Cardinals sent rookie closer Adam Wainwright in to pitch to the Mets in the bottom of the ninth. Wainwright gave up two singles. He managed to get two outs on a strikeout and a fly out. Then Wainwright issued a walk to load the bases.
With the bases loaded and Carlos Beltran at the plate, Wainwright got Beltran down 0-2 in the count. After a mound visit by Molina, Wainwright threw a perfect curveball to Beltran, who stood and watched it go for the third strike.
The Cardinals won the pennant and subsequently defeated the favored Detroit Tigers in five games to win their 10th World Series title.
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